Tag

This tip was contributed by Marje Rhine, pattern editor for American Quilter magazine. I have used a similar technique for many years when pinning together the two sections of Drunkard’s Path blocks. “Most quilters know to measure through the center of the quilt and then cut borders to fit before stitching them on. But how...

American Quilter magazine pattern editor Marje Rhine shares her views on cutting fabric borders: “Quilters are usually taught to cut quilt borders parallel to the selvage. There are a couple of good reasons for this. First, there is less stretch in the fabric parallel to the selvage so less likelihood of wavy borders. Second, the...

(Contributed by Marje Rhine, pattern editor for American Quilter magazine) Like many quilters, I shied away from using templates for many years. When I did use them, I tried to cut around them with a rotary ruler firmly held over the edge of the template. But this didn’t work too well and I usually ended up taking...

This technique for preserving points on the Friendship Star and other Pinwheel and Star blocks comes from reader Diane Williams (edited by Marje Rhine, American Quilter magazine pattern editor). It works ONLY when you are making blocks using half-square triangles that you have cut slightly oversized. For this project, I was working on a 9”...

(Submitted by Marje Rhine, pattern editor for American Quilter magazine)When I recently needed a project for a car trip, I pulled out a small kit for an English paper-pieced Grandmother’s Flower Garden block. I remembered Rachel Wetzler’s article “Portable Pastime” in the May 2009 issue of American Quilter magazine on preparing just such a project. Rachel...

(Submitted by Marje Rhine, pattern editor for American Quilter magazine)One of the most obvious and frequent mistakes made by beginning quilters when joining rows of blocks is poor alignment. This is especially true when working with sashed blocks and rows that don’t have cornerstones (the squares usually found between block sashing), causing the rows to...

(Submitted by Marje Rhine, American Quilter magazine pattern editor)I used to have a lot of trouble accurately applying mitered borders. It seemed more often than not I would end up with pointy or sometimes rounded borders. This was because I could not accurately cut the angles of the borders when they were already attached to...

Submitted by Marje Rhine, technical pattern editor for American Quilter magazine)In September I lost the girl doggy love of my life, my 14-year-old Sheltie, Daisy. All fall I thought about what I could do to memorialize her in fabric. Not being very proficient at appliqué and wanting a realistic portrait instead of the cartoon I could...

Many American Quilter readers wrote to me about our November 2009 cover quilt, Circle of Fire, designed and made by Pat Wolfe of San Diego, California. Some were seeking the source of Pat’s black batik background fabric (no longer available, sorry to say), and some just let me know they planned to make this dynamic...